JUNE 8
65 CE: Jewish insurgent forces captured the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem. This battle marked the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against Rome. This revolt would end with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.
68: The Roman Senate accepts Galba as the new Emperor. Galba was the second of men who would claim title of Emperor in the eleven months between June, 68 and July, 69. The first of the five was Nero and the last of the five was Vespasian. There are those who contend that there is direct connection between this Imperial anarchy and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Vespasian was determined to secure the throne and to promote is son Titus as his heir. He decided to take the unusual step of completely destroying the Jewish capital and its house of worship as a way of demonstrating that he had the power to hold the throne and put an end to the revolving door Emperors.
570: Religion of Islam founded in Mecca. Like Christianity, Islam is rooted in Judaism.
632: According to tradition, the anniversary of the death of Mohammed, founder of Islam. Mohammed had expected the Jews of Arabia to accept his new faith. When they did not, he turned on them. This is an oft told tale in Jewish history.
1191: Richard I arrives in Acre thus beginning his crusade.
1374: Geoffrey Chaucer is appointed Comptroller of Customs and Subsidy of Wools, a position that pays ten pounds per year. This steady income gave him the freedom to write The Canterbury Tales which contained the “Prioress Tale” complete with its anti-Semitic featuring an eight year old Christian child who is murdered in the Jewish quarter of the town while singing hymns in praise of his faith. At the end, the Jewish community is wiped out as punishment for the death of the Christian child.
1622: Albrecht Wallenstein, the Count of Friedland, who was supportive of Jewish economic activities as can be seen by his dealings with “former Prague banker and merchant Jacob Bassewi” arranged a festive dinner today to be given “in connetion with the reckoning up of the malt tax” at Riechenberg.
1662: Asser Levy bought a lot from Barent Gerritsen on Hoogh Straat (Stone Street) in New Amsterdam [New York City]. By doing this Levy became the first Jewish landowner in what is now the United States of America.
1664: King John Casimir of Poland denied the Jews of Vilna the right to deal in non-Jewish books
1723(5th of Sivan): Seventy-nine year old Isaac Vita Cantarini, “Italian poet author, physician and rabbi who was the author of Pahad Yizhakpassed away
1753(6th of Sivan, 5513): Shavuot
1763: Twenty four year old“Rebecca Claudia bat Zvi wife of Itsca [Isaac] Shnof of Hamburg” who had died on Shabbat was buried today at “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1776: Aaron Hart, the father of Trois-Rivières, Quebec native and legislator Ezekiel Hart, was among those who fought to repel American campaign to conquer Canada which came to an end today with the Battle at Trois-Rivières, Quebec
1796: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Abraham Azuby officiated at the marriage of London, England native Hannah Abrahams, and local merchant Samuel Levy.
1787: Birthdate of Emanuel Aguilar, father of author Grace Aguilar.
1789: James Madison introduces a proposed Bill of Rights in the House of Representatives. Those favoring ratification of the U.S. Constitution promised that a Bill of Rights (what would be the first ten amendments to the Constitution) would be enacted as soon as the new federal government was formed. The First Amendment is of particular importance to Jews because it guarantees freedom of religion in the nation’s organic document. This has made the experience of Jews in the United States different from all other Diaspora Communities.
1779: Birthdate of “German Christian cabalist” Joseph Franz Molitor whose work was intended “to show the superiority of cabalistic mysticism over that of the Christian, and that Christianity is Judaism obscured by a false mysticism.”
1809: Thomas Paine, the author of “Common Sense” and political pamphlets passed away. Paine relied on the experience of the ancient Israelites when arguing against monarchy. “The quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs hath a happy something in them, which vanishes away when we come to the history of Jewish royalty. Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens, from whom the children of Israel copied the custom. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry.”
1809: Alexander Isaac married Sophie Levy at the Hambro Synagogue.
1810(6th of Sivan, 5570): Shavuot
1810: Birthdate of German jurist and political leader Moritz Warburg the Altona native who served as a member of the Sleswick-Holstein constituent assembly for 22 years.
1810: Israel Jacobson introduced an organ for the first time at a Reform service in Berlin.
1812: Birthdate of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst the native of Moravia who was a child prodigy when it came to playing the violin and the viola.
1815: “The Congress of Vienna finally adopted Article 16 of the "Bundesakte," which guaranteed to the Jews in all German states the rights which they had obtained "from" the various states, instead of "in" the various states, as the original text read.”
1815: During negotiations intended to guarantee Jewish rights in the Treaty of Vienna, the Mayor of Bremen inserts language in “Article 16” that will effectively end the rights gained by most German Jews during the military successes of Napoleon.
1815: Birthdate of Rabbi Samuel Hirsch. Born in Germany, Hirsch was a leading advocate of radical Reform Judaism. "He was among the first to propose holding Jewish services on Sunday." He passed away in 1889 in Chicago, Illinois.
1817: At “Berner Street, Commercial Road, London” Simon Marcus and Eleanor Levy gave birth to Lewis Marcus.
1818: Isaac Cohen married Rebecca Hart Myers at the Great Synagogue in London.
1818(4th of Sivan, 5578): Fifty-nine year old Baroness Franziska "Fanny" von Arnstein the daughter of Daniel Itzig and the wife of banker Nathan Adam von Arnstein, a partner in the firm of Arnstein and Eskeles passed away today.
1819: Birthdate of Glogau native Meir Wiener, the “headmaster of the religious school at Hanover” and the translator of several works included those of Joseph ha-Kohen and Solomon ibn Verga.
1827: Birthdate of Wolf Frankenburger, the native of Bavaria who was a member of the Reichstag, a proponent of German unification after the Franco-Prussian War and “championed the rights” of his fellow Jews.
1836: Solomon De Lissa married Rosetta Solomon today at the Western Synagogue.
1842: Aaron Barnett married Sarah Cohen at the Great Synagogue in London.
1842: “The account of Isaac Lyon, for printing done by order of the” United States District Court “amounting to $54.62 was ordered paid” today.
1843: This afternoon Mr. Woolfson laid the foundation stone for the synagogue now being built at Grove
Place with the assistance of Mr. Marks, the congregation’s President. (As reported by the Voice of Jacob)
1848(7th of Sivan, 5608): Second Day of Shavuot
1857: An English Jew named Theodore Seymour was arrested in Boston this evening on charges of having stolen an unspecified number of gold bracelets from Tiffany & Co, the famous New York jewelry store. Mr. Seymour who also used aliases of Leman and Simon had worked there for a year before being recently discharged. The police recovered the merchandize valued at $500 during the arrest. Seymour will be sent back to New York City to stand trial.
1858: Two days after he passed away, “Moshe bar Nathan” was buried today the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1859(6thof Sivan, 5619): Shavuot
1860: In Cincinnati, OH, “Mayer Moritz and Caroline Frank” gave birth to 1881 Naval Academy graduate Albert Mortiz, the husband of Caroline Frank who served on a succession of ships starting with the Enterprise in 1882, served on shore as the “inspector of machinery of the Battleship Maine of Spanish-American War Fame and “erected the first ice-plant on Guam while rising to he rank of lieutenant commander in 1903.
1861: Philadelphian Joseph Davidson, who reached the rank of First Sergeant and would killed at Chancellorsville, began his service as a member of the 28thRegiment.
1862: During the Civil War, the 11th Regiment of the New York State Militia under the command of Colonel Joachim Maidhof began serving in the 2nd Brigade in the Department of the Shenandoah.
1865: Sixty-one year old Sir Joseph Paxton designed Mentmore Towarers, “one of the greatest country houses built during the Victorian Era” for Baron Mayer de Rothschild and Château de Ferrières at Ferrières-en-Brie near Paris for Baron James de Rothschild passed away today.
1867: Birthdate of Frank Lloyd Wright who designed the house of worship used by Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, PA (suburban Philadelphia). “Construction began in 1953 and was completed in 1959. Wright designed the building to look like a "luminous Mount Sinai," with an extravagant fountain at its entrance, carpet that's meant to look like desert sands, and a mountain-like roof that looks a bit like a Klingon spacecraft. The building…has been accorded status as a National Historic Landmark. Wright's design surrounds congregants with meaningful symbols, adding a new spiritual dimension to the very act of going to synagogue.”
1869: With her health declining Jewish born feminist and abolitionist Ernestine Louise Rose and her Christian husband William Ella Rose set sail from the United States for a trip to England.
1871:Birthdate of Julius Fleischmann, the son of Charles Louis Fleischmann of Fleischmann’s Yeast, who would become mayor of Cincinnati before dying an untimely death in 1925.
1871: At today’s meeting of the Rabbinical Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr, Max Lillienthal reported that he had not been able “to effect a reconciliation between the members of the Conference that had met at Philadelphia in 1869, and those who were attending the current Conference.
1871: Joseph Deutsch, the German born son of Moses Deutsch and Sarah Levy and his wife Theresa Deutsch gave birth to Bertha Deutsch who became Bertha Hurwitz when she married Ezra Hurwitz with who she had four children.
1871: Today’s meeting of the Rabbinical Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, adopted the report of the Committee on the Establishment of a Rabbinical Seminary favoring the development of such an institution and instructed the committee to develop a “a more detailed course of study.” This is one of the steps that led to the creation of Hebrew Union College.
1872: In London Alice le Strange married Laurence Oliphant. Oliphant was a British journalist and MP who became a devoted advocate of settling Jews in Palestine as can be seen by his fundraising activities, his attempts to gain a lease from the Ottomans on a portion of Eretz Israel for that purpose and his employment of Naftali Herz Imber as his personal secretary.
1872: A special meeting was held tonight at the synagogue on East 57th Street where resolutions were adopted to express the Jewish community’s sense of loss following the recent death of James Gordon Bennett, the fouder, owner and editor of the New York Herald. Besides describing him as a fearless, honest and upright champion” of the general population, the resolutions said “that in him the Israelites generally had an honest supporter and a true friend and that the New York Herald…always gave firm and true support to our creed.”
1878(7th of Sivan, 5638): Second Day of Shavuot
1879: Birthdate of Dunkirk, NY native Ira Morris Gast, the Columbia undergrad and NYU PhD, the author Foundation of American History and co-author of Fundamentals of Educational Psychology.
1879:Rabbi Isaac C. Noot officiated at the corner-stone laying ceremony for the new synagogue being built by Congregation B’Nai Israel. The building located at 289 East Fourth Street will be the home to this Orthodox congregation which had been founding in 1847. A copper box was placed in the cornerstone containing a variety of items including copies of New York newspapers and the issue of Frank Leslie’s Monthly that contained a history of the Jews of New York. Dr. Lyon Berhard, the oldest member of the congregation was given the honor of laying the cornerstone.
1879: The officers and members of B’nai Israel lead the cornerstone for the building that will house their new synagogue on E. 44th Street in New York. The congregation is currently worshipping at its temporary home on Rivington Street which it has been using since it sold its building on Stanton Street so that it could afford to construct the new building.
1880: Three days after he passed away, “65 year old Amos Henriques” was buried at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1881: In Cleveland, Ohio, Louis Seasongood, “a rich Hebrew from Cincinnati” lost his bid for the second time to be nominated as the party’s choice for Lieutenant Governor.
1882: It was reported today that the body of young man thought to be a Jew was taken to the morgue after it had been found hanging in New Jersey’s Glendale Woods. [Editor’s note – it took me a few minutes to figure out why they assumed he was Jewish]
1883: A jury in Westchester Country found Theodore Hoffman guilty of murdering a Jewish peddler named Zife Marks. The judge sentenced the prisoner to death by hanging.
1884: In the Kiev Governorate, Hersch Gottesmann and Carna Birinska gave birth to “playwright, screenwriter and director Leo Birinski.
1885: “Explorations in the Delta” published today describe the recent explorations conducted in the Nile Delta region under the auspices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund Society. As a result of these archeological activities Edouard Naville has produced a memoir about Pithon, the Biblical city built by the Israelite slaves.
1885: In Pennsylvania Reverend D.E. Shaw of Keokuk, Iowa has been elected Professor of Hebrew at Lincoln University. [Since I am from Iowa, I could not resist the entry]
1885: Attendees at a meeting of Baptist Ministers called to examine the new translation of the Old Testament were critical of the liberties taken with translating the Hebrew text into English feeling in several cases that the new translation did not reflect the accurate meaning of the Hebrew. They suggested that the translators return to their work so that, for instance, in Genesis, the text would reading the and the morning of the first day, rather than the one day.
1886(5th of Sivan, 5646): Erev Shavuot
1886: In Bavaria,Leopold (Lehmann) Schloss and Karoline Schloss gave birth to Dorchen Schloss
1886: Birthdate of “Zaliztsi, Austrian Ukraine” native Pauline Margulies, the wife of Max (Mendel) Margulies the mother of Ann Ross and the mother-in-law of Paul Ross.
1887: “Bessarabian Jewish immigrants Augusta "Gussie" (née Mendeburskey) and grocery store owner Israel Balaban” gave birth to Barney Balaban, the eldest of their seven sons and the “president of Paramount Pictures from 1936 to 1964.”
1889(30th of Sivan, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1889: Harry Marks, the founder of the Financial News was caricatured in Vanity Fair today.
1889: The Hebrew Relief Fund made a contribution of $161 to aid those suffering from the effects of the Conemaugh Floods.
1890(20th of Sivan, 5650): Charles Bienenstok, the German born son of Simon and Helena Bienenstok and the husband of Sarah Davis Bienenstok passed away today in St. Louis after which he was buried in the United Hebrew Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St. Louis, MO.
1890: “Judah” the new play by Henry Arthur Jones which will be performed next winter at Palmer’s Theatre in New York is reported “to have been praised without stint” during its performances in London. The hero of the play is Judah Llewellyn the son of Welch fatherand a Jewish mother who falls in love with a character named Vashti.
1890: Julian Nathan presided over the closing exercises of the Sunday School of the United Hebrew Charities which were held this morning.
1890: “Jewish Annals” published today provided a detailed review of Outlines of Jewish History From B.C. 586 to C.E. 1890 which had been revised by Michael Friedländer
1891: Birthdate of South African cricketer Manfred John Susskind in Johannesburg, Transvaal
1892: Today, the Tegeblatt confirmed recent rumors that Emin Pasha had died of smallpox in Africa. Born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, the physician and naturalist was baptized at the age of 7 when his widowed mother married a Lutheran. (The rumors were just that rumors since he passed away in October of 1892)
1893: The American Israeli published what some considered to be an exposé about Immigration Commissioner Joseph Senner.
1894: In Prague, “Gustrav Schulhoff, a wool merchant and his wife Louise Wolf gave birth to composer and pianist Erwin Schulhoff.
1894: In New York, Morris Jacobs testified before the Lexow Committee, a New York State Senate committee investigating police corruption in New York City, “that anybody who has ‘pull’ and $300 can get an appointment to the police force without reference to his qualifications. In his own case, Jacobs or his political supporters, did not think he could pass ‘the intellectual examination” because the questions were “too technical” so “ex-policeman was induced to impersonate Jacobs” and take the examination for him.
1895: One hundred delegates attended the first meeting tonight of “a new anti-Semitic organization founded by Dr. Boetekel and Rechtor Ahlwardt, the notorious Jew-baiters. Resolutions were unanimously adopted calling for “the exclusion of all Jews and Germans having Jewish wives from all public functions, from the learned professions and from all positions of all authority in the army and navy,” the suppression of Jewish immigration and the prohibition of Jews from acquiring ownership of landed property or from leasing farms.” (This is 35 years before Hitler came to power)
1895: Birthdate of Roxbury, MA, native Julius Daniels the WW I veteran and Boston University alum with worked with Edison Electric.
1896: “Jews To Rule The Earth” published today described the belief of Reverend Isaac M. Haldeman, a Baptist minister “that the Jews had been persecuted by all the civilized nations of the world, so that they were driven to lying, cheating and other vices. No tongue could describe the tortures inflicted on them not by pagans but Christians…”
1896: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Norman Salit, a graduate of JTS and NYU Law School and President of he Synagogue Council of America who was the husband of Ruth Salit and the father of “Mrs. Naomi Birnbach.”
1897: “Baptist Worship With Jews” published today described the joint service held at the Belden Avenue Baptist Church in Chicago which was led by Rabbi Julius Newman and Reverend M.W. Haynes.
1897: “Jew Refrain From Voting” published today attributed the light turn out during the recent judicial election in Chicago to the fact that it was held on a Jewish holiday when the Orthodox members of that faith would not be at the polls.
1898: Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes provide over the opening session of conference of Jews from the United States and Canada meeting today at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
1898: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band is scheduled to play at today’s “patriotic tea in honor of Alexander Hamilton sponsored by the Hospital and Charitable Committee of the Parish Guild of St. Luke’s Church
1898: The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America was organized. Or Chaim was one of the founding congregations. The Orthodox Union has grown to be one of the largest umbrella organizations for Orthodox Judaism in North America. One of its earliest accomplishments was the establishment of Elchanan Theological Seminary, a modern academic institution designed to train Orthodox Rabbis. It was the original School of what is now Yeshiva University. The familiar sign of the OU can be found on numerous food products indicating that they are Kosher.
1899: Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Beerman hosted their annual garden party for those living at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1899:German anti-Semitic agitator Count Walter Puckler continued “his Jew-baiting crusade” with a lecture in Berlin on “The Progressive Judaisation of Germany.”
1903: The Sixth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists continued today at Central Turners’ Hall in Pittsburgh.
1905: Birthdate of Uman, Russia native and University of Pennsylvania trained neurologist Dr. Morris Bender who raised five children – Barbara, Leila, Adam, Barnaby and Victor – with his wife Sarah.
1905: In Baltimore, MD, Lewis J. Putzel, the son of Sophia and Selig Gerson Putzel and Bertha (Birdie) Putzel gave birth to Margaret Ney/Humel
1912: Hyman Gerson Enlow, the rabbi at Adath Israel in Louisville, KY, who had turned down an invitation from Claude G. Montefiore to come to England to help further the cause of Liberal (Reform) Judaism “delivered the baccalaureate sermon at the graduation exercises of the Hebrew Union College.”
1913: Eleven students of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America became rabbis this afternoon at the graduating exercises in Aeolian Hall, when Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the seminary, conferred the degrees. The services marked the tenth anniversary of the seminary's reorganization.
1913: Nine boys and nine girls were confirmed this morning at exercises held this morning the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans.
1913: In Philadelphia, “S.L. Nusbaum, a bookbinder” and the former Jenny Singer gave birth to Nathan Richard Nusbaum, who gained fame as author N. Richard Nash, whose best known work is “The Rainmaker” which was a Broadway and Hollywood success.
1914: “The Northwest Side Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Marks Nathan Orphan Home is scheduled to give “a hard time party” this evening where guests were urged to “wear your old clothes” because “it will cost extra if you dress your best.”
1914: It was reported today that “the family of the late Professor Loeb has presented the” the Jewish Theological Seminary “with the sum of $50,000 witch which to erect a new library building.”
1915: The Jewish National Committee is reported to be opposed to the creation of Jewish congress “to demand full recognition of the rights of the eleven million Jews in Europe when the war closes” because it believes “the committee is fully capable of dealing with the situation through the State Department in Washington.”
1915: “Demands from some of the delegates that the national convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham record a protest” about the Russian treatment of the Jews “were stilled when conservatives pointed out that should Russia win in the war, the sufferings might be greatly increased.”
1915: Mrs. Nina Stevens who had admitted to making false affidavits showing that Leo “Frank was a degenerate” after having be “plied with whiskey by the Atlanta police” was convicted today of “running a disorderly resort” for which she was fined “one hundred dollars with an alternative of thirty days in jail.”
1915: According to reports published today, The Tageblatt, “is urging the government to put an end to the attacks” by German anti-Semitic organs on Jewish soldiers “inasmuch as German Jews are dying gloriously by the thousand on the fields of battle.”
1915: According ‘to an announcement made this afternoon” “the Prison Commission will make its report to Governor Slaton on the Leo Frank case some time tomorrow.”
1916(7th of Sivan, 5676): Second Day of Shavuot
1916: “The industrial department of the United Hebrew Charities…made a further appeal to the public” today “for contributions of waste materials and discarded household articles and old clothing for the utilization in some form for the benefit of 3,500 families.”
1917(18th of Sivan, 5677): “Talmudic scholar Sheftel Rubin” passed away today in Dublin.
1917: Pope Benedict received Nahum Sokolow, “a member of the Zionist Executive Committee in a special audience” and declared “himself in sympathy with Zionist aims in Palestine.”
1917: Italian Premiere Paolo Boselli met with Nahum Sokolow today and stated that his “government is prepared to favor Zionist aims in Palestine.”
1917: At a meeting in Berne today, Abram I. Elkus, the former American Ambassador at Constantinople told “Rabbi Messinger, the Second Chairman of the Swiss Zionist Society” “that according to his reports” as of now, “no massacre” of Jews had taken place and that “the rumors that massacres had accompanied the Jaffa evacuation” were untrue.
1917: Birthdate of Stanley Rabinowitz, the Duluth native, raised in Iowa who would serve as the Rabbi at Adas Israel, Washington, DC’s premiere Conservative Congregation.
1918: The Philadelphia Inquirer described the plans of the Camden Jewish community to raise $10,000 with which to complete the building of the new facility for the Y.M.H.A. and Y.W.H.A. on Walnut Street.
1918: Birthdate of Esther Vilenska, a native of Poland who made Aliyah where she gained fame as an author and a member of the Communist Party.
1918: In Syracuse, NY, “Edna and Louis Rosovsky, immigrants from Russia” gave birth to Lillian Rosovsky who gained fame as Lillian Ross, the long-time reporter for The New Yorker. (As reported by Michael T. Kaufman)
1919: While delivering an address at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America Commencement Ceremonies today Professor Louis Ginsberg read a letter from Harry Cohen stating that Graduating Class has “decided to give a fit of about fifty dollars to be used to purchased books, under the directions of the Librarian and the Professor of Homeltics on the sociological and psychological aspects of the religious problems of the day” and that graduates suggest that the gift, which is the first of its kind, “be known as ‘The Class of 1919 Gift for the Purchased of Books on Religious Problems of the Day’.”
1920: The Republican Convention which nominated Warren Harding who would receive a plurality of the Jewish vote in November, opened in Chicago today.
1920: Today, at Buckingham Palace, King George V, “invested Captain Alexander Aaronsohn with the Distinguished Service Order” for his espionage activity including penetrating “the enemy lines in Palestine, bringing back valuable information which made possible the British ‘push’ against the Turks north of Jaffa” and whose sister Sarah who had been tortured to death by the Turks because she would not give away information about the British was honored by the eretion of a monument at Athlit. (Before dying she had defiantly said “You may spill all the blood you want, you may torture us but you cannot prevent the British Army from coming here.”
1920: Osip Maksimovich Brik, the son of Jewish jeweler and avant garde author, joined the Cheka, the early version of the Soviet secret police.
1921: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Rabbi,Moshe Shererm the graduate of Torah Vodath and Ner Israel rabbinical college in Baltimore who turned Agudath Israel into a force to be reckoned with and who raised two daughters – Rochel and Elky – with “his wife, the former Deborah Portman.”
1922: Today, as the United States grappled with the challenges of Prohibition, Adolphus Busch, the son of Beer-Baron August Busch, forwarded a letter from his father describing the sale of liquor aboard American ships to President Harding who turned the matter over to Albert Lasker whose ships were selling alcohol for a response.
1923: In Brooklyn, Max Kaiser, “a house painter” and “the former Nettie Slavititski” gave birth to Herbert Kaiser, the WW II Navy Veteran, Swarthmore College graduate and Foreign Service Officer who in retirement raised millions of dollars for training medical personnel in South Africa. (As reported by Bart Barnes and Neil Genzlinger)
1923: Birthdate of Ella Adler, the native of Krakow who survived Auschwitz and eventually made a new life for herself in the United States.
1924: Birthdate of Samuel Karlin, the Polish born, Chicago “raised mathematician who applied his theoretical brilliance to such far-flung areas as economics and population studies, before helping to find ways to analyze DNA swiftly and comprehensively.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1924(6th of Sivan, 5684): First Day of Shavuot
1924: In Kansas City, MO, Edith Adelman Pines and Sidney Pines, the owner of “a company that installed heating and air-conditioning systems” gave birth to physicist David Pines. (As reported by Kenneth Chang)
1925: Today, “Garrick Gaieties,” “a revue with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart re-opened today.
1926: Louis Greenspan whose automobile struck and killed Congressman Meyer London was released on bail today.
1928: Attorney General Albert Ottinger’s investigation into complaints made by the Hebrew Religious Protective Association concerning the practices of certain New York area cemeteries continued today. Among the complaints was an allegation by Harry Kaplan, President of Adath Israel, that his brother was buried in a grave at the Baron Hirsch Cemetery in Port Richmond on Staten Island that contained four feet of water.
1927: In Brooklyn, a bus driver named William Stiller and his wife Bella Citron Stiller gave birth to Gerald Isaac the oldest of the four children who gained fame as comedic actor Jerry Stiller best known as part of the team of Stella and Meara and being the father of Ben Stiller.
1929: Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) asked Britain for political asylum.
1930: Birthdate of Robert John Auman the German born Israeli-American mathematician and member of the National Academy of Sciences who married Batya Cohen after the death of his first wife Esther Schlesinger and who, among other things along with Michael Maschler used the Game Theory to analyze sections of the Talmud.
1933: This evening in Detroit, “Henry Wineman, the chairman of the board of governors of the Jewish Welfare Federation” is scheduled to preside over the opening session of the National Conference of Jewish Social Service.
1933: It was reported today that “The German Dunlop Rubber Company which is affiliated with the Dunlop organization in the United States” “has procured a ruling from Nazis” saying that was “free of non-Aryan influence.” (Editor’s note: They no longer employ Jews)
1933: In Brooklyn, Russian immigrants Meyer and Beatrice Grushman Molinsky gave birth to Joan Alexandra Molinsky who gained fame as comedian and game show player Joan Rivers.
1933: Jesse Isidor Straus, whom President Roosevelt had appointed U.S. Ambassador to France presented his credentials today.
1934:A death sentence was pronounced today against Abraham Stavsky, who, with Zvi Rosenblatt, was on trial for the murder on June 16, 1933, of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, labor leader and member of the Jewish Agency Executive of Palestine. Rosenblatt was acquitted on the ground of insufficient evidence. Notice of appeal has been filed on behalf of Stavsky.
1935: Birthdate of Montreal native Harold Tafler Shapiro, “the former President of Princeton and the University of Michigan” and husband of Vivian Shapiro with whom he had four children – Anne, Marilyn, Janet and Karen.
1935: The owners of “Ruby Foo’s in Montreal: gave birth to Montreal native Bernard Jack Shapiro, the twin brother of Princeton President Harold Tafler Shapiro, who became “the first Ethics Commissioner of Canada and 14th Principal of McGill University.
1936: In Jerusalem, the Jewish community joins in the celebration of King George’s birthday.
1936: As Arab violence mounts two Arabs died and 26 Arabs and Armenians were injured by a bomb which exploded inside the Jaffa Gate today.
1936: Tonight, as violence continues to escalate “High Commissioner Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope prohibited telephone communication beyond the borders of Palestine except with special permission.
1936: Today “Bucknell University conferred honorary degrees upon Roger Williams Straus of New York and Newton D. Baker of Cleveland, co-chairman of the National Conference of Jews and Christians for their promotion of religious liberty.”
1936: “Nazi pamphlets printed in Arabic distributed in Acre…blamed the British government for ‘favoring’ the Jews.”
1937(29th of Sivan, 5697): Seventy-four year old Mir native Dr. Henry Sliosberg, the lawyer and defender of Jewish rights who was President of the Jewish Community of St. Petersburg before the coming of the Bolsheviks who imprisoned him for three years and the president of the Russian community in Paris, passed away today.
1937: “La Grande Illusion” a war film starring Erich von Stroheim and with music by Joseph Kosma was released in France today.
1937: Chaim Weizmann presented his reasoning for supporting partition at private dinner given by Sir Archibald Sinclair where his fellow diners included Winston Churchill, James de Rothschild and several parliamentary supporters of Zionism. Weizmann was willing to “settle for a Small state at once” rather than wait for a “Large state” that might come in some distant future. Churchill opposed partition and contended that the Jews should wait for their state in all of Western Palestine as envisaged by the White Paper issued in 1922.
1938: A year before the Nazis invade Poland, anti-Semitic riots begin in Warsaw.
1939: In Palestine, Sir Harold MacMichael, British High Commissioner hosted a garden party in honor of the King’s birthday. All Jewish leaders had declined the invitations as a way of expressing their displeasure with the recent White Paper that, if enforced, will put an end to Jewish immigration an the hope of a Jewish home in Palestine.
1939: In response to an order by Chief Rabbi Herzog, all synagogues pronounced the usual prayers for the King and his family in honor of the monarch’s birthday.
1940(2nd of Sivan, 5700): Parashat Nasso
1941: In Nashville, TN, musicologist David Robison and Naomi Robison gave birth to flutiest Paula Robison.
1941: During World War II, "mixed squads, some made up of Palestinian Jews and Australians, others entirely Jewish" went into operation for the first time in Lebanon and Syria which were controlled by Vichy Government. It was during this combat that Moshe Dyan lost his eye and began wearing his famous eye-patch.
1942: In Poland, at the urging of the Jewish Council of Pilca, hundreds of Jews flee for the forests.
1943(5th of Sivan, 5703): Erev Shavuot, The Jewish community at Zbaraz, Ukraine, is destroyed.
1943: Eighty-five year old Dr. Hiram N. Vineberg, the consulting gynecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital who “is responsible for relieving women of suffering and disablement by insisting, half a century ago, that reproductive organs be conserved during operations” and whose adventure filled life included treating Princess Liliuokalani for black tongue while in Hawaii is scheduled to be “honored this afternoon at the hospitals Blumenthal Auditorium.”
1943: In Jerusalem, Blanka and Joseph Davis, both of whom came to Palestine during the 5th Aliyan gave birth Uriel “Uri” Davis, whose pro-Palestinian views led him join Fatah and convert to Islam after marrying Miyassar Abu Ali, a Palestinian, in 2008.
1943: Dr. Albert Menasche arrived at Auschwitz from Greece. He "joined" the camp orchestra. The orchestra would play as the new arrivals entered the camp. The orchestra came to public notice after the war in the film, "Playing For Time.: Dr. Menasche was the only one of a family of more than thirty to survive.
1943:A transport arrived in Auschwitz today and after a selection 220 men and 88 women are admitted into the camp. The other 572 deportees are murdered in the gas chambers.
1943: What may have been the last transport of Jews sent from Salonica left for Bergen-Belsen today. Included in the transport was the Chief Rabbia of Salonica, Rabbi Zvi Koretz and his family. A list of all of the Jews of Salonica with their addresses and ages was given to a Jew named Vital Hasson by the chief rabbi. Hasson was said to have escaped to Albania.
1944: “President Franklin Roosevelt signed a memorandum directing the establishment of an Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY.”
1944: "The Greek tanker Tanias, commandeered by the Germans was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Vivid 53 kilometers west of Heraklion, capital of the Greek island of Crete. On board were all of the 265 Jews of Crete including many children, all of whom perished.
1945: “Wonder Man” a musical starring Danny Kaye, “based on a short story by Arthur Sheekman,” and produced by Samuel Goldwyn was released in the United States today.
1947:The Oujda and Jerada pogrom came to an end leaving 42 Jews dead and approximately 150 injured. The excuse for this pogrom in northeastern Morocco was the local Muslim reaction to fighting in Palestine.
1948(1st of Sivan, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1948: Birthdate of Rabbi Harold Berman who will enjoy a 34 year career at Tiftereth Israel in Columbus, Ohio.
1948: Today twenty-four year old Newark, NJ native Gideon Lichtman became the first fighter pilot in the young Israeli affair to shoot down an enemy fighter in aerial combat, a feat that would make him a target for terrorists and force him use a an assumed name while teaching high school in Florida for thirty years.
1948: "The Milton Berle Show" premiered on NBC TV. This aging Jewish vaudevillian would come to "own" Tuesday night. He was the first national star of the infant medium.
1948: During The War of Independence, David Ben-Gurion orders his military leaders to attack the fortress at Latrun for a third time. This is one time that Ben-Gurion will not be able to bully the opposition into doing things his way. Ben-Gurion is desperate to break the Arab stranglehold on the road to Jerusalem and to ensure that the “City of David” is part of the new Jewish state. Yigal Allon, the chief of staff and his brigade commanders oppose the attack. Allon’s position gains additional credibility when Mickey Marcus adds his voice to the opposition. Marcus is a West Point graduate who reached the rank of Colonel in the American Army during World War II. No longer on active duty, Marcus is serving as “military advisor” to Ben-Gurion. In fact, under the name Stone, Marcus has been given the responsibility of opening the road to Jerusalem. The military leaders all oppose the attack for the same reason it will fail just as the first two attacks have with great loss of life. Besides which, they do not see the capture of Latrun as being the key to opening the road to Jerusalem. Two Israeli soldiers have discovered an alternative route to Jerusalem. It is a donkey trail that goes beyond Latrun. If the Israelis are lucky, the can widen the path, turn it into a passable road and break the siege. The Jews must work on the project at night and quietly enough that they will not attract attention from the Arab army. If their presence is discovered, they will be sitting ducks, the road will not be completed and Jerusalem will not be united with the Tel Aviv before the impending cease-fire.
1948: Mordechai “Modi” Alon took off from the new airstrip at Herzliya leading Gideon Lichtman on his first combat mission for the IAF during the War for Independence.
1948: After seeing four Egyptian Spitfires heading for Tel Aviv, Gideon Lichtman shot down one of them and the other three attacked the Jewish city.
1949: Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris who had initially supported Petain but “wrote a public protest against the deportation of the Jews and condemned Vichy in 1942” “was buried in the crypt of the archbishops in Notre-Dame Cathedral” today.
1949: Numerous celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Frederic March, John Garfield and Edward G. Robinson were named in an FBI report as members of the Communist Party. The disproportionate number of Jews named in what later was proven to be a bogus report, set the stage for claims that the Jews were responsible for the Communist menace.
1949: In Lviv, concentration camp survivors Joachim and Hellen Ax gave birth to American pianist Emanuel Ax who first captured public attention in 1974 when, at the age of 25, he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv and who raised “two children, Joey and Sarah” “with his wife, pianist Yoko Noazaki.
1950: “Dance Hall” a film about romantic encounters featuring Sydney Tafler as “Jim Fairfax” was released today in the United Kingdom.
1950: According to reports published in the New York Times, the government of Israel, in response to a request from Secretary State Dean Acheson, is investigating charges of the mistreatment of Arab infiltrators who have crossed into the Jewish state from Jordan. Acheson’s request was triggered by complaints from Arab states, who, it should be noted, still consider themselves to be officially at war with the state of Israel.
1951: Oswald Pohl, chief of the economic office of the SS, Otto Ohlendorf, responsible for the murder of 90,000 Ukrainian Jews, and Colonel Paul Blobel, organizer of the massacre of the Jews of Kiev, were hanged.
1952: Movie producer Sidney Luft, the son of Jewish immigrants, married film star Judy Garland. His marriage to her is his only real claim to fame.
1953: Alexander Korda married Alexandra Boycun.
1954(7th of Sivan, 5714): Second Day of Shavuot
1954: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel founded
1959(2nd of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-six year old Austrian native Harry “Baum a volunteer settlement worker on the Lower East Side who became one of basketball's greatest coaches during the early decades of the 20th Century and is considered the father of fundamental basketball tactics” passed away today in New York.
1961: Information regarding Malka “Mala” Zimetbaum “a Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and the resistance she displayed at her execution following the escape's failure” was made available to the public in the official testimony of Mrs Raya Kagan today during Session 70 in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem
1962(6th of Sivan, 5722): Shavuot
1966: A revival production of Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls” starring Jan Murray (Murray Janofsky) as “Nathan Detroit” opened at New York City Center
1966: In Spring Valley, NY, Francesca Goldberg, “a ballet dance and eurythmy teacher” and “Paul Margulies, a writer, philosopher, and Madison Avenue advertising executive” gave birth to American actress Julianna Margulies.
1966: A merger agreement between the NFL and the AFL which was opposed by Al Davis was announced today.
1966: Today, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel record “Patterns” which was the second trick on the album “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.”
1969: In Silver Spring, MD, attorney Stanley Futterman and psychoanalyst Linda Roth Futterman gave birth to actor and screenwriter Daniel Paul “Dan” Futterman.
1967: In the one sour note of the Six Day War, Israeli planes accidentally attack the American Naval ship, U.S.S. Liberty. Despite numerous investigations that proved otherwise, there are anti-Semites, those who are anti-Israel and assorted conspiracy buffs who claim that the attack was deliberate. American ships had been ordered out of the area. Apparently word did not reach the Liberty. We know from the episode of the U.S.S. Pueblo the following year, that the American government did have some problems in dealing with electronic listening or spy ships. Some of the killed and wounded among the Liberty's crew were Jewish. They were on the vessel because of the knowledge of Hebrew. Attached please find the most recent article on this event based on the most recently released transcripts of the communication between the pilots and their controllers.
1967: President Nasser of Egypt accepted the cease-fire ordered by the Security Council. This came too late to save the Egyptian military. In a change of plan, Dyan had already given orders for the Israeli forces to push on to the Suez Canal. The Egyptians continued to fight and in the end would leave 15,000 dead in the Sinai. There was still no agreement among the Israelis as to how to deal with Syria, whose provocative, bellicose behavior had helped to feed the flames of war. The settlers living under the guns of the Golan Heights and the general in commanded of the Northern Frontier pressured Prime Minister Eshkol to take action and end the Syrian menace to the Galilee. Moshe Dyan showed the same reluctance he had when it came to taking Jerusalem and opposed action against the Syrians. At the end of the meeting, the settlers and the generals drove north, thinking that they had lost and Syria would continue to menace them after the fighting stopped.
1970(4th of Sivan, 5730)
1970(4th of Sivan, 5730): American psychologist Abraham Maslow, famous for his Hierarchy of Needs, passed away.
1971: Birthdate of Mark Feuerstein, the New York native best known “Dr. Henry Hank Lawson” of the television hit show “Royal Pains.
1974: The “KGB detained Professor Voronel for several hours and threatened him with imprisonment and exile in Siberia unless he ceases to sponsor a scientific seminar for refuseniks ”
1975: Near Beit Lid, soldiers killed terrorists who attacked hitchhikers and soldiers with grenades.
1977: “The Other Side of Midnight,” the movie version of Sidney Sheldon’s novel of the same name produced by Frank Yablans, Howard W. Koch and Hawk Koch was released in the United States today.
1981(6th of Sivan, 5741): Jews observe Shavuot for the first time during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
1981: Following yesterday’s bombing “Iraq’s Osiriak nuclear facility” by the IAF, the U.S. State Department said today “in a prepared statement that ‘the unprecedented character’ of the attack ‘cannot but seriously add to the already tense situation in the area’ and said it was possible Israel had violated the agreement under which it purchased the American F-4 and F-15 jet fighter bombers used in the attack.”
1983: “The State Department today described as patently false an assertion made by an officially sanctioned Soviet anti-Zionist committee that most Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union had already done so. ''The contention that the majority of Jews who desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union have already left is patently false,'' Alan D. Romberg, a State Department spokesman, said.”
1984: After yesterday’s screening in Westwood, CA, the rest of the United States gets its first chance to see “Ghostbuster” a comedy directed and produced by Ivan Reitman with a script co-authored by Harold Ramis, co-starring Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis, with music by Elmer Bernstein.
1986: The comic strip “Dondi” co-created by Irwin Hasen ran for the last time today.
1986: Former United Nations Secretary-General and veteran of Hitler’s Army, Kurt Waldheim, is elected president of Austria. Before the presidential elections, the Austrian weekly newsmagazine Profil revealed that there had been several omissions about Waldheim's life between 1938 and 1945 in his recently-published autobiography. A short time later, it was revealed that Waldheim had lied about his service as an officer in the SA-Reitercorps (stormtroopers), a paramilitary unit of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) before the war, and his time as an ordinance officer in Saloniki, Greece from 1942 to 1943. It is known and documented that many crimes against civilians were committed during the military occupation of Greece. Instead, Waldheim had incorrectly stated that he was wounded and had spent the last years of the war in Austria. Speculation grew, and Waldheim was accused of being either involved, or complicit, in "war crimes". During his Presidency Waldheim was not welcome in most capitals of the world. One of the few exceptions to this treatment was the Vatican which he visited twice during his Presidency.
1987: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres agreed today to appoint a career diplomat, Moshe Arad, as Israel's next ambassador to Washington.
1988(23rd of Sivan, 5748): Eighty-three year old actor Eli Mintz who created the character of “Uncle David” on the “Goldbergs” passed away today.
1989(5th of Sivan, 5749): Erev Shavuot
1989: In Pacific Palisades, CA, Lee Schwartz, a business consultant to manufacturing companies, and Olivia Goodkin, an attorney gave birth to Cleveland Brown’s Offensive tackle Mitchell Bryan Schwartz whose Hebrew name is “Mendel” and who is the brother of Geoff Schwartz who plays for the New York Giants making them the first duo of Jewish brothers to play in the NFL since 1923.
1991: Outfielder Ruben Amaro, Jr., the son of Judy Amaro-Perez (née Herman)[3] is of Russian-Jewish heritage and his father was a Marrano Sephardic Mexican-Cuban made his major league debut with the California Angels.
1992: In Paris, Atef Bseiso, the head of PLO Intelligence was killed by two unidentified gunman.
1995(10th of Sivan, 5755): Seventy-five year old Colorado native, Isadore “Izzy” Spector who played halfback for the University of Utah from 1939 to 1941 passed away today
1997: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood by Naomi Wolfe, Ovitz:The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker by Robert Slaterand the recently released paperback edition of The Temple Bombing by Melissa Fay Greene in which“the author shows the intertwining of racism and anti-Semitism in the South in the 1950's, when Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, a Northerner, came to Atlanta to lead its oldest synagogue. Enraged by Rothschild's support of black civil rights, white supremacists bombed the temple in 1958.”
1999: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Judge Fred Carolano is scheduled to sentence 72 year old Rabbi Jacob Lustig of Kneseth Israel Congregation who had pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes that resulted in a “massive fraud involving instant bingo games throughout Greater Cincinnati.
1999: Oscar Goodman began serving as he 21st mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada.
2000(5th of Sivan, 5760): Erev Shavuot
2000(5th of Sivan, 5760):Joshua Myron, one of the last of the camel-mounted Zionist brigade that fought with Vladimir Jabotinsky against Turkey in Palestine during World War I, passed away today in Manhattan at the age of 102.
2001: U.S. premiere of “Evolution” a sci-fi comedy directed and co-produced by Ivan Reitman and a screenplay by David Diamond and David Weissman who were graduates of Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion, PA.
2001: “Arafat’s Failed Utopia,” Amos Perlmutter’s last column appeared in the Jerusalem Post
2003(8th of Sivan, 5763): Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Assaf Abergil, 23, of Eilat; Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Udi Eilat, 38, of Eilat; Sgt. Maj. Boaz Emete, 24, of Beit She'an; and Sgt. Maj. (Res.) Chen Engel, 32, of Ramat Gan were killed and four reserve soldiers were wounded when Palestinian terrorists wearing IDF uniforms opened fire on an IDF outpost near the Erez checkpoint and industrial zone in the Gaza Strip. Three terrorists were killed by IDF soldiers. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement claiming responsibility for the attack.
2003(8th of Sivan, 5763):St.-Sgt. Matan Gadri, 21, of Moshav Moledet was killed in Hebron while pursuing two Palestinian gunmen who earlier had wounded a Border Policeman on guard at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The two terrorists were killed.
2003(8th of Sivan, 5763): Eighty-four year old Colin Legum “a journalist and writer on African affairs” who was “strongly Zionist and anti-Marxist” passed away today.
2004: FOX broadcast the first episode of “The Jury” a television series created by Barry Levinson.
2006: Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel has called on Israel to take in refugees from Darfur. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, says, "We as Jews are obliged to help not only Jews. I was a refugee and therefore I am in favor of admitting refugees. I thought it was very laudable when Israel became the first country to admit the Vietnamese boat people. History constantly chooses a capital of human suffering, and Darfur is today the capital of human suffering. Israel should absorb refugees from Darfur, even a symbolic number."
2007: After having been first seen at the Cannes Festival, American audiences got their first chance to “Ocean’s Thirteen” produced by Jerry Weintraub, with a script co-authored by Brian Kppelman starring Ellen Barkin.
2007: Haaretz reported that “despite the increasing tensions with Syria, Israel will not ask to widen the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan, which is due to be extended at the end of the month, government sources in Jerusalem said.”
2008:In San Francisco the Contemporary Jewish Museumofficially opened the doors to its new building today with a community-wide celebration.
2008: Erev Shavuot 5768
2008: At Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Erev Shavuot Confirmation Service for Gabriel Kringlen and Jacob Muesham.
2008: The Sunday New York Times book section features a review of The German Bride, a novel set among the German-born merchants and traders who in the middle of the 19th century left Europe for the raw possibilities of the American West written by Joanna Hershon
2008: Thomas Friedman described the future of Israel. “From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007. The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.” For the entire article go to;
2008:An 18-year-old Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus after military police on duty discovered he was carrying six pipe bombs, an ammunition cartridge and bullets, and a bag of what appeared to be gunpowder.
2009: Thomas R. Frieden began serving as the 16thDirector of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2009:Center for Jewish History and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum present a program entitled “A Discussion of Refugees and Rescue: American Diplomat James G. McDonald and the Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1935-1945” The remarkable efforts of James Grover McDonald to call attention to the threat faced by European Jewry and his tireless attempts to relay these concerns to the highest levels of government are explored in the acclaimed new volume Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945, edited by Richard Breitman, Barbara McDonald Stewart, and Severin Hochberg. As Chairman of the President's Advisory Commission on Political Refugees, McDonald personally interacted with many of the leading figures who shaped the events of World War II and the Holocaust - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) - and numerous others. The evening's discussion highlights new insights into the Nazi regime and American responses to the Jewish refugee crisis from the insider's perspective of James G. McDonald's remarkable and well-documented experiences
2009: David W. Jourdan, a former submariner in the U.S. Navy and the founder/president of Nauticos, an ocean exploration company, discusses and signs his new book, Never Forgotten: The Search for Israel's Lost Submarine Dakar at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2009: Israel Defense Forces soldiers early today killed at least four Palestinian militants who were trying to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip. An IDF source said that the group was planning to launch an attack on an Israeli community bordering the Strip
2009(16th of Sivan, 5769): Sheila Finestone, who had had a distinguished career as a Canadian Member of Parliament and Senator passed away at the age of 82.
2010: “The Naming,” the new multi-disciplinary work by Persian Jewish innovator Galeet Dardashti, the driving force behind the popular band Divahn is scheduled to be peformed at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2010: Russ & Daughters is scheduled to welcome the New Catch Holland Herring with its traditional first taste of “Hollandse Nieuwe”
2010: President Shimon Peres, in South Korea to boost economic ties today, also did his part for Israel's aliyah (immigration of Jews to Israel) effort, encouraging a special robot to get "upgraded" in Israel.
2011: Canadian television journalist Joe Schlesinger received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Alberta in Edmonton for his long and distinguished career. He also delivered a speech to the 2011 graduating class of the Faculty of Arts, impressing on the new alumni that learning is a life-long endeavor, and that one should not be complacent and allow their minds to stagnate. His speech received a standing ovation
2011(6th of Sivan, 5771): First Day of Shavuot
2011(6th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety-six year old Latvian born French physicist Anatole Abragam who “was awarded the Lorentz Medal” and “elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences” passed away today.
2011: Contemporary Israeli Dance Week is scheduled to begin this evening at La MaMa in New York City.
2012(18th of Sivan, 5772): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz who had led Washington’s Adas Israel for 25 “challenging” years passed away today on his birthday. (On a personal note, my father served on the search committee that brought Rabbi Rabinowitz to Washington from Minneapolis. My brother was his first Bar Mitzvah. And he was my teacher in a post-confirmation class where he challenged our conventional views of Judaism and tried to get us to see that being Jewish meant knowing the law but making sure that the observance was consistent with spirit as well as the letter of the law. One of my regrets is that I only was around him for two years before leaving for college.)
2012: The Gallim Dance Company, which takes its name from the Hebrew word for waves, is scheduled to have its opening night performance at The Joyce in NYC.
2012: Planet Brass is scheduled to perform an evening of music created by Israeli Rafi Malkiel at the David Greer Recital Hall.
2012: In Iowa City, at Agudas Achim, Professor Robert Cargill is scheduled to facilitate a digital media presentation on "The Coronation of the King: The Importance of the Gihon Spring and the Kidron Valley to the Early Jewish Monarchy and to Later Prophets and Christian Interpretive Traditions."
2012: Thousands of people participated in Tel Aviv's 14th Gay Pride Parade today, including many tourists arrived in Israel to attend the annual gay pride week-long events.
2012(18th of Sivan, 5772): In a tragic reminder of the high price that Israel continues to pay for its vary survival Corporal Dor Gan died tragically today in roll-over accident while patrolling on the Golan Heights.
2013: At Adas Israel in Washington, DC, Judith Hauptman, Professor of Talmud and Rabbinic Culture at The Jewish Theological Seminary, is scheduled to deliver the d’var Torah at the service honoring Rabbi Charles Feinberg’s 40th anniversary in the Rabbinate.
2013(30th of Sivan, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2013(30th of Sivan, 5773): Eighty-three year old Yoram Kaniuk the iconoclastic Israeli author of more thirty novels passed away today.
2013: Opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich today urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps toward a political peace agreement with the Palestinians, adding that her party would consider joining the coalition if such a step were necessary to achieve that goal. (As reported by Michal Shmulovich)
2013: Police evacuated ten homes in the village of Roglit as brush fires raged near Beith Shemesh today
2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald and My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
2014: In Potomac, MD, the Potomac Community Center is scheduled to host a program of klezmer music interwoven with an engaging narrative on the history of this unique musical form and its impact on Jewish culture with Seth Kibel.
2014: According to Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, “Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will join Pope Francis in a prayer for peace at the Vatican today. (As reported by JTA)
2014: In Olney, MD Shaare Tefila Congregation is scheduled to host Dr. Erica Brown speaking on “Why Be Jewish? Personal Commitments to Peoplehood.”
2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present an evening with Isaac Levendel, author of Hunting Down the Jews: Vichy, Nazis and Mafia Collaborators in Provence 1942-1944
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah is scheduled to hold Congregational Annual Meeting preceded by a potluck dinner
2014: “Emergency sirens sounded in several cities in southern Israel tonight, as a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip in the direction of Ashkelon, setting off the Code Red alert in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.”
2014: “President Shimon Peres issued a prayer for a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace at the Vatican today, alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Pope Francis.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Australia’s announcement that it would no longer use the term East Jerusalem because it was “judgmental language” while the Palestinian leadership denounced the decision as "disgraceful and shocking", with the ministry making a formal diplomatic protest. (As reported by YNET)
2014, Sophie Okonedo won a Tony for her performance in A Raisin in the Sun.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/08/2014/this-week-in-history-sophie-okonedo-wins-tony-award-for-raisin-in-sun
2014(10th of Sivan, 5774): At the age of 111 years and 124 days, Polish born American chemist, parapsychologist and author Alexander Imich who passed away today.
2015: Today “the Supreme Court struck down part of a federal statute that allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to record in their passport "Israel" as the place of birth.
2015: Professor Schaffer is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jews in the British Army 1900-45” at Leeds, UK.
2015: “The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-missile battery beside the southern Israeli city of Beersheba today, after multiple rocket salvos were launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.”
2015: In Chevy Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host “My Soul Longs for You:Melodies of the Russian Jews with Kolot HaLev.”
2015: Today, in Paris, prosecutors began presenting “their case against 15 defendants” all members of “the terrorist group Forsane Alizza” who are “accused of planning jihadist attacks on French Jews and other targets.”
2015: “Sacred Spem” is scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Center Festival at the JCC Manhattan
2015: “My Beloved Uncles” is scheduled to be shown at the Cinema South Film Festival in Sderot.
2015: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host “a special screening of Paul Hirschberger’s ‘Touchdown Israel’” a film about the “Jewish connection to football.”
2016(2nd of Sivan, 5776): “Four people were kill and three were seriously injured this evening in a shooting at Sarona Market, a popular out shopping center in Tel Aviv.
2016: The Center Jewish History and YIVO are scheduled to host a book talk and multimedia presentation featuring Joshua Rubenstein author of The Last Days of Stalin.
2016: “Bentwich” and “Dawn” are scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Center Festival in Manhattan.
2016: “100 Years of Jewish Fashion Design” published today provided a history of the Anglo-Jewish contribution to the world of clothing the best and not so best dressed.
2016: “Babylon Dreamers” is scheduled to be shown at the Cinema South Film Festival in Sderot.
2016: “Finding Dory” an animated comedy film featuring the voices of Albert Brooks and Eugene Levy premiered today at the El Captain Theatre in Los Angeles.
2016: The Geulah Trio is scheduled to perform at the 17th Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2017: “La Putyka, a Czech circus, is scheduled to perform “Slapstick Sonata” and “La Putkya,” a cornucopia of acrobatics, theater, live music and puppets at Zion Square” today as part of Israel Festival.
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Dough,” a comedy about “an old Jewish baker” whose “failing business gets an unexpected boost when his young Muslim apprentice, also a cannabis dealer, drops a load of dope in the dough.”
2017: As Britons go to the polls in the “snap general election” called by the Conservative P.M. Zac Goldsmith is seeking to represent Richmond Park in the House of Commons.
2018: Today “was the most productive day for Jewish batters in Major League Baseball history” as five players – Ryan Braun, Kevin Pillar, Alex Bregman, Ian Kinsler and Joc Pederson – “combined for six home runs…to help their respective teams to victory.”
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Kabbalat Shabbat services followed by festive dinner.
2018: Tel Aviv hosted its 20th Gay Parade today which drew 250,000 participants and on-lookers.
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Boy Downstairs” starring Zosia Mamet and Matthew Shear in London.
2019: Tonight, “starting at 8 p.m. the Oshman Family JCC and the Israel-based education organization Bina are” scheduled to take over the Town and Country Village Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA “for “Night Shift,” a Shavuot festival of music, food and learning that aims to give Palo Alto a little of the feel of Israel, where Jewish celebrations are part of everyday life.”
2019(5th of Sivan, 5779): Triple Header Shabbat – Start Bamidbar; Finish Pirke Avot with Chapter 6; Erev Shavuot.
For more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/